Things are off to a hot start for healthcare advocacy in South Dakota. On July 1st, the bills that were passed during the 99th South Dakota Legislature went into effect. This included $62.6M in funding for Medicaid providers, funding to get community-based providers to 98% of their methodology, and funding to move the Medicaid daily allowance to $100. This also included addressing discriminatory acts against entities participating in the 340B program, adding four new licensure compacts (counseling, APRN, social work, psychology), and much more.
Elections
The South Dakota primary election was held on June 4 with 101,168 votes being cast. That may sound like a large number of votes, but it only represents about 17 percent of all registered voters in South Dakota. Due to the low turnout, many legislators who have been very friendly to healthcare over the last two years were voted out of office. Looking ahead to the general election on November 5, the SDAHO Advocacy Team is hopeful that the makeup of the legislature for the next two years will continue to be one that advances healthcare policy in a positive way but will prepare to defend areas such as childhood vaccinations, healthcare provider conscience protections, and public health in general.
There will also be a ballot measure during the general election that could have an impact on healthcare in South Dakota. An amendment to the Constitution of the State of South Dakota, authorizing the state to impose work requirements on certain individuals who are eligible for expanded Medicaid. This would be for those individuals with Medicaid Expansion eligibility who are not mentally or physically disabled. If approved, the Department of Social Services will have to submit a waiver to the federal government to be approved before anything could be put in place. SDAHO will distribute more information regarding the upcoming election and this ballot measure in the fall.
Resources
Recently, SDAHO launched a new resources page where you can find all SDAHO resources in one location. This includes updates to the SD Transitions of Care Report, Annual Report, Impact Report, and more. The Transitions of Care Report looks at hard-to-place inpatients who have been awaiting discharge for seven days or longer, but hospitals are struggling to find an appropriate setting to discharge them to.
Looking Forward
The SDAHO Advocacy team will continue to monitor the SD legislature during the interim with Jacob Parsons, Director of Advocacy and Reimbursement, located in Pierre. Both summer studies have had their initial meetings, and we continue to monitor if the discussions on artificial intelligence or property taxes will have any type of impact on healthcare. On the federal side, we continue to monitor various legislation on 340B and provide feedback to our congressional staffers. We are also continuing to advocate against the CMS staffing ratios for nursing homes and hope to at least see some compromise moving forward.
If you have any questions about what is included in this update, or anything else related to SDAHO’s Advocacy efforts, please reach out to Jacob at Jacob.Parsons@sdaho.org.
